US teens spend more time watching TV than on computer

American teenagers spend most of their free time glued to their computer screens, right? Not according to a new study. They spend much more time glued to the television set.

That US teens spend more time watching television than on the computer was among the findings in a Nielsen Co. study presented at a marketing conference in New York on Thursday entitled "What Teens Want."

The study found that teenagers were more engaged than popularly believed with traditional media such as live television, radio and newspapers.

"Sure, they are the digital natives, super-communicators and multi-taskers we hear so much about, but they are also the TV viewers, newspaper readers and radio listeners that some assume they are not," the study said.

It said that teens "embrace new media not at the cost of traditional media but in supplement to it."

"Looking at our research across markets and media, we see that, contrary to popular assumption, teens are actually pretty normal in their usage," said Nic Covey, Nielsen's director of insights.

The Nielsen study found that the amount of television watched by the typical American teenager has increased by six percent over the past five years to three hours and 20 minutes per day.

The typical teenager spends 104 hours and 24 minutes per month watching television and 11 hours and 32 minutes online per month, it said.

While online, teens are spending an increasing amount of time watching online video, according to the study.

It said that 12 million US teens, or about two-thirds of those online, watched online video in May 2009 averaging three hours and six minutes per month.

(c) 2009 AFP